Indian basil, Ocimum basilicum, belongs to the family of Lamiaceae. The essential oil of Indian basil extracted via hydro or steam distillation from the leaves or whole plants used to flavour foods, dental and oral products, in fragrances, and in traditional rituals and medicines. Extracted essential oil has also been shown to contain biologically active constituents that are insecticidal, nematicidal, fungistatic or which have antimicrobial properties.
Keeping in mind the importance of Indian basil, the need for developing a better plant type having an early, short duration, dwarf, high essential oil yield characters combined with consistent high yield of methyl chavicol and linalool in the essential oil in all around the year was felt and planned breeding and selection process was undertaken at the farm of CIMAP, Lucknow to develop the variety CIM-SAUMYA.